Poor Julius Francis. He would be crushed to know that Abraham Lincoln’s birthday still isn’t a national holiday.

While many states, including Illinois, have declared Lincoln’s Feb. 12 birthday a holiday, the federal government has never declared a national holiday for Springfield‘s greatest legacy.

Most people think President’s Day in February was designated to honor George Washington and Lincoln, but noooo. According to the federal government’s usa.gov, “Washington’s birthday is observed the third Monday of February in honor of George Washington … this date is commonly called President’s Day and many groups honor the legacy of past presidents on this date.”

In other words, honor whomever you like that day, but it’s really for George.

Buffalo, N.Y., druggist Julius Francis devoted his life to changing that. “He was a hero worshipper and Lincoln was his hero,” stated an article in the 1902 Publication of the Buffalo Historical Society (BHS). Francis’ efforts made him a “local legend,” says BHS Curator of Collections Walter Mayer.

In the 1860s, Francis, a bachelor, traveled the country acquiring Civil War memorabilia. “These items would be very insignificant if they weren’t connected to a Civil War battlefield,” Mayer says. They include a shell casing from Gettysburg, a bent canteen from Antietam, a piece of the Monitor — a U.S. ironside battleship — and about 100 other ephemera.

According to a book about Francis’ collection, “The Lincoln Memorial Collection,” he spent five years gathering these items, as well as newspapers chronicling the war and signatures of Civil War veterans and government officials — 11,822 of them (Mayer doesn’t think Lincoln’s signature is among them). No one knows how much these travels cost.

Francis spent even more money having three ornate wooden cases built to house the collection. One case alone cost $1,500 — in 19th century dollars.

Today, no one knows why he was so passionate about the Civil War or Lincoln. We get a hint from “The Lincoln Memorial Collection,” which quoted a minister saying Francis wanted to “show how much our civil liberties have cost us.”

Man on a mission

At some point, Francis decided that amassing Civil War memorabilia and signatures wasn’t enough. He had to commemorate Lincoln. Making his birthday a national holiday became “his wife and his life,” according to the Western New York Heritage Press website.

It was an expensive spouse.

He created the Lincoln Birthday Association in Buffalo and got 50 people to sign a request to Congress that Lincoln’s birthday be declared a national holiday. It was “drawn on parchment, backed with blue silk, with 50 white stars, and fine needlework border, inserted in a folding case of French walnut, and enclosed in (a) Russian leather case,” according to the 1902 BHS publication.

Page 2 of 2 - When Buffalo’s congressman laid it before the U.S. speaker of the House in 1873, the speaker said: “Whoever put that tablet there, take it away, as it is in gross violation of the rules of the House,” reported the Washington Star, whose article was reprinted in the Dec. 31, 1873, Illinois State Register. The Star snarked: “(The “tablet”) will make an ornament for the committee room, at all events ….” Congress never acted on the request.

Undeterred, Francis formed an “alternate” Lincoln birthday association in Buffalo — this one for “young” men, which resubmitted the plea to Congress. But even younger men couldn’t get Congress’ ear.

So the hero worshipper commemorated Lincoln in his own way. Beginning in 1874, Francis paid for a bash in Buffalo on Lincoln’s birthday with decorations, music and speakers. “The celebrations (one in the afternoon, another in the evening) were free to all and a crowded house was always the result,” according to The Lincoln Memorial. This Lincoln fan also lined up speakers and asked writers to pen poems for the occasion. “They would meet and there would be an elaborate ceremony around the large cases (of his collection) that was basically a shrine to Lincoln and the Civil War,” Mayer says.

Francis also visited Buffalo schools and made sure they honored Lincoln on his birthday. He had cards specially printed and sent to every pupil for the occasion.

All of these Lincoln day commemorations cost Francis about $20,000 between 1863 and his death in 1881, according to the 1902 BHS publication. That roughly equals $500,000 today.

When he died, Francis left nearly everything, including $10,000, to his Lincoln Birthday Association. The group used it to commission a bronze statue of Lincoln. Today it sits on the Buffalo Historical Society museum’s back steps.

Francis never saw his dream realized. We may not either. But Buffalo still holds an annual ceremony marking Lincoln’s birthday. Because of this druggist’s dream, Buffalo boasts of hosting the longest running celebration of Lincoln’s birthday in the country.

Tara McClellan McAndrew is a Springfield writer who specializes in local history.